None other than Molly Moon
by Franki09
Summary: Rocky can't sleep one night, so he is left to his thoughts. Friendship, can be seen as slight Rocky/Molly if you want it to be.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! My sister re-read the Molly Moon books the other day, and I was inspired to do something like this. Rocky's feelings in this are sort of what I was thinking when reading the fifth book, because I was like, 'No! Why Rocky gone? D:' so I thought with Micky Minus getting closer to his sister, Rocky would feel slightly left out. Anyway, if you'd prefer it to be, you can see this fic as just a strong friendship, or you can see it as slightly romantic. Whatever floats your boat, I intended it either way. I haven't read them in a while, forgive anything I may have gotten wrong. :)**

**Oh yeah, copyrights go to Georgia Byng. I just realised I need to put disclaimers on all my other stories as well...**

Rocky Scarlet had a nice voice. It was deep, rich in tone, and when used summoned out all the best feelings of people. His words seemed to sing and dance, even in the most sombre of moments. He said things in such a way that he could sound polite and cheerful no matter what he was saying.

And Rocky Scarlet's voice used to be one of the things that Molly admired about him. He never had been sure whether she genuinely liked his voice, or if she just favoured it because it sometimes came in handy when voice hypnotism was needed. Either way, he was glad she liked it. But now, he wasn't so sure.

He knew he and Molly would always be friends; the bond that they had was not something that could be broken. But it could always be weakened. And sometimes it felt as if she had drifted off, slowly moving further and further away from her friend. It hurt Rocky like crazy.

And there was only one reason Molly had drifted away.

Micky Minus-now-Moon.

Of course, Rocky couldn't blame her. Micky was her long-lost twin brother, seperated at birth and whisked off into the 26th century. Micky had been tortured there his whole life, until Rocky and Molly had gone to great lengths to rescue him. Now, Micky and Molly were inseperable. He would sit on the bean bag Rocky used to sit, and play the video games there with Molly that Rocky used to play.

On sunny days, he and Molly would go outside and play with Petula, before eating a picnic of tomato ketchup sandwiches and soya sauce ones with three cartons of orange juice. Molly had invited Rocky to join them a couple of times, but he would politely refuse and choose to do some meditating with Forest, hanging with Ojas, or just playing guitar on the lawn.

Molly used to love listening to Rocky play.

Now she prefers to spend her time discussing their all-so-powerful hypnotic powers with Micky.

Sure, being able to hypnotise, stop time, time travel, mind-read _and _morph is pretty cool, but they sure as ever didn't have to go on about it _all day long. _Why couldn't they just act normal for one day?

So whenever the all-powerful twins had their picnics, Rocky would listen to them chatting, and secretly despise Micky.

Definitely, Rocky thought that Micky was a nice guy. There wasn't really anything not to like about him. But something Rocky could not quite describe snagged at him from the corners of his consiousness; anger, hurt, heartbreak, jealousy. It tore away at the very edges of his soul, so much in fact that Rocky had to fight the urge to wring Micky's neck with his bare hands.

Yet he handled these urges very calmly, by meditating or playing his guitar. They were the sort of thing that allowed him to escape from the perfect-on-the-outside reality around him and be left alone with his evil, Micky-hating thoughts. On occasion, he would become so caught up in 'auming' (the Hindu sound of meditation, Ojas had said, often counfused with 'om') or strumming he would almost forget about the world around him, composing songs and tunes so beautifully crafted, so creative and catchy, that hours would pass before he actually noticed his arm ached and his fingers hurt.

Often, he became so buried deep inside himself Rocky came to the conclusion that it was something to do with the fact he could hypnotise; no normal person should be able to experience that.

So one day, during one of his meditation sessions, his thoughts drifted to Molly. And while thinking, Rocky came to a desision; he no longer needed Molly Moon. If she insisted she had broken the once brotherly-sisterly relationship with Rocky, he would not mope about it. He would hang out with Ojas and Sinclair, visit Happiness House, ride on Emrit, but he would stay clear of Molly Moon and Micky Minus.

Rocky did not let these thoughts cloud his head at night though. At night, he would lie on his bed, awake, staring hopelessly at the ceiling and wondering why he hadn't managed to upkeep his and Molly's friendship. _They had spent all fifteen years of their life together. _She had only spent the last four years with Micky, and over those years Rocky's situation had grown worse. He would look back to the days where he and Molly had adventures; the days when they were inseperable eleven year olds who had discovered how to hypnotise.

And Rocky would let a single tear spring from one of his chocolate-coloured eyes and roll down his cheek. Just this one night. Then he groaned, and rolled over, pulling a pillow over his head and wondering why on earth he deserved _this, _after saving hundreds of lives, and, in some cases, the entire world. Rocky felt utterly hopeless. He was jealous of Micky Minus. He desperately wanted him to leave his sister alone for _one day, _one day, so that Rocky could have Molly back. It felt as if his heart was being wrenched from his chest and torn into thousands of pieces at the fact that Molly no longer cared about him. After all they had been through together.

He sat up, not able to sleep. Running slender fingers through his curly-black hair, he glanced at the clock on his wall. _12:15. _Rocky pulled himself from his bed and slipped some pumps on loosely. Usually, he would get his guitar and let his own calming voice make him feel better, but he wouldn't risk waking anybody up.

He needed a drink. Gently shutting the door behind him, he tiptoed along the corridors and downstairs into the kitchen of Briesville Hall. Moonlight streamed in through the window. He grabbed a glass from the shelf and agressively poured some water from the tap into it. His throat felt as if someone had rubbed sandpaper against it. The water in the glass made his dry mouth water.

Rocky was just about to hold the glass to his lips when he heard the door open and a sharp intake of breath. His hand jerked as he jumped, surprised, and water flew everywhere. He turned to the door to see who the intruder was, and saw none other than Molly Moon. "Oh, Rocky, I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean to startle you," she said, awkwardly glancing at the water that was now all over the floor. Rocky just looked from Molly to the empty glass in his hands to the puddle on the tiles.

"I'll clear it up," Rocky stated, not saying anything else as he took a tea towel off the worktop and lay it on the floor for it to soak up the liquid. Molly moved over to him, leaning against the oven and watching Rocky as he worked. She watched him as he rinsed out the glass he was about to use, get some concentrated orange juice from the fridge, and as he poured it into the glass. Then he placed it on the counter next to Molly and wiped the floor down one more time, before chucking the tea towel carelessly into the sink.

Molly smiled as she took the orange juice and drank it in one go. "Thanks," she said, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "How did you know?"

"We've been best friends since before we were one. How would I not know what you like to drink?" he replied, not meeting her gaze and trying very hard not to think about the fact that Molly thought he wouldn't know what she wanted to drink. She blinked at his statement, then gave an awkward nod. "Point taken," she said, as Rocky poured some water into the kettle and switched it on.

"So, I'm guessing you couldn't sleep?" Molly tried. Rocky nodded once, slightly, as he reached for a mug and a tea bag.

"Yeah."

"Me neither," she admitted, helping herself to another round of orange juice.

"Hm."

"Sooo..." she started. Rocky did not say anything. "Micky's going out tomorrow."

"And?" Rocky asked, failing to mask the hope in his voice, although deep down he had to fight the urge to ask, _so the only reason you want to talk to me is because Micky's gone?_

"And we haven't been seeing much of eachother lately-" she continued.

_That's an understatement._

"So I was wondering if-" she was suddenly interrupted when the kettle whistled. Rocky hurriedly switched it off and poured the boiling water into his mug. Molly opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again decisively. "G'night, Rocky."

"Night," he sipped at his tea.

She nodded, hovering, half-expecting him to say something. When he didn't, Molly smiled briefly and left the kitchen, feeling Rocky's gaze bore into her back. She paused at the bottom of the stairs, staring back forlornly at the ajar door of the kitchen. _I've got to say something,_ she thought. _Should I?_

"I was wondering if you'd like to go for a meal on Friday?" she cupped her hands round her mouth and shouted, not too loudly, as to not wake anyone up. There was a pause, as she waited, hoping. Then Rocky's handsome face appeared in the doorway, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"But won't Micky be back then?" he asked.

Molly shrugged, smiling. "So?"

Rocky grinned. "Okay," he said, disappearing back into the kitchen to finish his tea. "Good night, Molly."

"Night, Rocky," she murmured under her breath as she trudged back upstairs.

When Rocky went back to bed that night, he did so with a smile on his face. And for the first time in a long time, that smile was caused by none other than Molly Moon.

**What did you think?**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated! :)**

**~Franki**


	2. Chapter 2

"This is ridiculous!" Molly cried, scouring her green eyes over the menu. "It seems like no restaurant or cafe nowadays is decent enough to sell ketchup sandwiches. Honestly!"

Rocky smirked. "It's probably because they're decent."

Molly scowled, plopping the menu down onto the table with a defeated huff. "Well, I think that the world would be a much better place if everyone could appreciate the beauty of a tomato ketchup sandwich. It's just one of those things that everyone looks over in life," she sighed wistfully.

"Just one of those things," he agreed.

"I mean, a lot of people think that it would be disgusting-"

"Too true."  
>"-but no-one's ever actually tried it before!"<p>

"Agreed."

"And I think that if they did, tomato ketchup sandwiches would quickly become a delicacy."

"Of course."

"Do you actually agree with anything I've just said?"

"Well... I think that getting the whole world to like tomato ketchup sandwiches is a little far-fetched. They're not exactly hard to make. But, I guess you could hypnotise people to like it."

Molly crossed her arms. "I guess. But then it would be different, because they wouldn't actually be enjoying it. They'd just think they are."

Rocky shrugged half-heartedly. "Maybe."

"If only they could see the real beauty and simplicity of a tomato ketchup sandwich."

"Simple, definitely."

"Simple, but delicious!"  
>"Whatever you say, Molly."<p>

Molly leaned back in her chair, pushing the menu away from her and tucking a stray lock of matted, brown hair behind her ear. "Besides, I've moved on from hypnotising. I guess it's pretty cool that I can hypnotise, stop time, time travel, mind-read _and _morph, but that sort of makes me an all-powerful being, don't you think? But I don't want to be like that. I'd rather have to work for things and get enjoyment from achieving something, rather than just hypnotising someone to do it for me. If I'm going to use my talents, I don't want to use them for my own purposes.

So unless any new dangers that need hypnotism to sort out pop up, I'm not gonna use my talents anymore. I guess I just want to feel... _normal_."

Rocky's mahogany-coloured eyes widened in surprise as he leaned forwards and rested his chin on his hands, looking up at Molly with interest. She smiled, and relaxed a bit more. Rocky hadn't thought that she would feel like that, and was interested that she did.

"Did Micky put you up to that?" he asked the question that was burning quietly at the back of his mind. Molly tensed, sensing the discomfort in Rocky's voice. She averted her gaze and shuffled away a bit.

"Maybe," she admitted, her voice dropping to a murmur. "He might have dropped a few hints here and there that sprung up the idea."

Rocky sat up. "I see," he pursed his lips.

"But, maybe it's good, you know? Don't you think it's a good idea to not use my abilities selfishly?" she tried hopefully, doing her best to change the subject. Rocky seemed to relax a little. Afterall, he wanted to change the topic probably as much as she did.

"Yes, on some level. I don't think that you should not use it _at all _though, as to have a talent like that, it would be a shame to waste it. Besides, you had to go through the effort of learning them, so it's a bit pointless if you don't use them, and you've saved hundreds of lives, and a couple of times the entire world, so I guess you deserve being able to use your talents for yourself, even if it's not often."

Molly ran her finger in circles on the table thoughtfully, throwing the thought around a little. "Yes, you have a point," she decided after a while. "But, I'm not going to use them often. Hardly ever."

"Fair enough," he said. Molly nodded, and was halfway through saying, 'Yeah,' when a waitress came over and interrupted her. Molly shut her mouth like a fish as Rocky smiled in amusement at her before turning to the waitress as she spoke. "Could I get you anything for lunch today?" she asked, notebook at the ready.

Rocky and Molly glanced at eachother, and made a silent agreement. "Yeah, uh, could I have the burger, with chips and ketchup. And-" he looked at Molly, who nodded, smiling, "-and a ham sandwich as well, please."

The waitress scrawled something down on her notebook, before looking back up and saying, "Anything for drinks?"

Rocky opened his mouth before Molly butted in with, "Um, a concentrated orange squash for me please, no water, and for him-" she looked at Rocky, who said,

"Oh, just a water for me, thanks."

The waitress inclined her head uncertainly. She held the expression of someone who thought someone was weird and did their best not to show it. She smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we serve orange squash, um, without any water, so would just an orange juice be okay?"

Molly narrowed her eyes. "I guess, yeah."

The waitress just nodded, before hurrying off, muttering to herself.

"Maybe next time you're ordering lunch you should try to order a more normal drink. I doubt many places sell orange squash with no water."

Molly just pouted. "It's unfair! They should do."

"You were _soo _going to hypnotise her to get you it."

"I was not!" she protested.

Rocky raised an eyebrow. Molly fixed her gaze on him, her eyes unwavering. Eventually, she gave in. "Okay, maybe I was a little tempted," she looked away.

Rocky raised his eyebrow further. "Fine! I was very tempted. I'm going to have to think a little about this whole, 'only using my abilities for a good cause' business."

"Yes, I think you may."

Molly nodded, twirling her hair round her finger. "I've thought about it. I'm still not gonna use them for myself."

Rocky groaned, banging his face against the table. "What's it take to make you see that you have cool powers and that you should use them?"

"I don't know! You were the one who thought I should take a break from talking non-stop about hypnotism to Micky!"

"Yeah, but I didn't mean that you should not _use _them."

"What did you mean then?"

"I don't know!"

"Exactly."

"I-" Rocky started, but decided against it. "Whatever. Let's change topics."

"Yeah, that would probably be best."

"_Sooooo_..."

"Yeah..."

"How's Micky?" Rocky asked, trying to spark a conversation.

"He's okay. A bit upset that I'm spending time with you and not him though."

Rocky was half-tempted to roll his eyes and say, _well, he would be, wouldn't he?_

But instead he nodded, grinned and said, "Nah, well. You can spend time with him tomorrow."

Molly shrugged. "Saying as tomorrow is the last day of the holidays, we decided it would be nice to go to the cinema. I hear that _Woman in Black _film is very good, so maybe you'd like to come with us? I'm sure Micky won't mind."

"Sure," he grinned.

"But we're paying. NO hypnotism."

"I wasn't gonna say anything."

"'Course you weren't."

"Whatever."

This continued for a bit, mild conversation and banter passing between them, until eventually the waitress came back. "Ham sandwich?" she asked, placing it in front of Molly when she raised her hand gingerly. "And the burger for you," she placed the meal down in front of him. "Someone will be here with your drinks shortly," she nodded, glancing between them, before hurrying off. When she was out of sight, Molly asked, "Ready?"

-and Rocky replied, "Yup."

Molly pulled the ham out of her sandwich with disgust and placed it at the side of Rocky's plate. Rocky took the tub of ketchup from his plate and placed it on Molly's. She took her knife and scraped a large amount out from the tub, before opening the sandwich and sperading the ketchup over the soft bread. She closed it with a satisfied huff, lifting the sandwich and taking a big bite, chewing it slowly and savouring the taste.

"That- is a good tomato ketchup sandwich."

Rocky nodded, taking a small bite from his ketchup-less burger.

"How's your burger?" Molly asked, taking a sip from her orange juice.

Rocky shrugged. "It's okay," he said. "I was actually going to have the soup of the day, but saying as though soup doesn't usually come with ketchup, I decided on the burger."

Molly choked on the orange juice she was drinking and put down the sandwich, looking at Rocky. "You didn't have to do that for me!" she cried, mortified.

"Yes, I did."

"No you didn't! I thought you were going to have the burger anyway!"

"Well it's okay, and I quite like burgers and I'm having it now and you have your ketchup sandwich so everyobody's happy and there's no point arguing about it, right?"

Molly huffed and folded her arms, glancing away. "Fine," she said indignantly. And then added in a quiet murmur, "Thanks Rocky."

Rocky sighed, leaning back in his chair and picking up the knife and fork. "That's okay."

Then they ate. At first an awkward silence hung over them, but quickly a conversation started up. Well, it was more teasing and banter than a serious conversation, but they were talking nevertheless and quickly the awkwardness was washed away. They ate their food and chatted, about anything really, before paying for their food and exiting. On their way down the cobblestone streets of Briersville, while the conversation died down to a comfortable silence, Molly decided he was always going to be too shy and if she didn't do something now, nothing would happen _ever. _

So she wordlessly slid her hand into his, interlacing their fingers. Rocky glanced at her, surprised, then back down at their hands. Then he smiled and squeezed her hand, looking up and ahead. Molly smiled too, as they set off on their way back home.


End file.
